A potential panel method is proposed to solve the collision-free pathplanning problem for a free-flying robot operating in an obstacle filled 3-Denvironment. The problem is solved in three steps: (1) transform the arbitraryshaped obstacles in the 3-D workspace into simple convex polyhedrons; (2)generate an artificial potential field using the 3-D panel method in the 3-Dworkspace; (3) generate a streamline from the starting position towards the goalposition in the artificial potential field. The computational complexity of thepertinent algorithms justify the efficiency of the approach and itsapplicability in real-time. Simulation results illustrate the potential of theproposed approach. The reported research is the outgrowth of the 2-D method,already published.